1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the mounting and support of hard disk drives for computers and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to apparatus for removably supporting a plurality of hot plug-connected hard disk drives.
2. Description of Related Art
Hard disk drives for a file server or other type of computer are often mounted, in a vertically or horizontally stacked array, in a rectangular sheet metal "cage" structure which may be disposed within the computer housing or externally thereto. For operational convenience and flexibility, each disk drive is typically "hot plug" connected within the cage. This type of electrical connection permits any of the supported disk drives to be removed and re-installed within the cage without disturbing the operation of the other disk drives.
To effect this desirable hot plug connection of each of the disk drives, each disk drive is typically supported on a carrier structure which is slidably and removably insertable into the cage to mate an electrical connector carried on a rear portion of the drive or its carrier structure with a corresponding electrical connector on a back plane circuit board suitably supported at the rear interior side of the cage.
When hot-pluggable disk drives and their associated carriers are removed from a drive cage and handled, the potential exists for damage to the removed disk drive due to non-operational shock. The most common damage occurs from simply trying to set the drive carrier on a table or workbench and inadvertently permitting the carrier to slip out a technician's hand and fall onto the table or workbench from even a short distance of an inch or less, or by setting one edge of the carrier on the table or workbench and permitting the carrier/disk drive assembly to tip over onto a side thereof.
In previous disk drive arrays supported in cage structures, this problem was alleviated by putting resilient shock-absorbing "feet" on the bottom sides of carrier structures so that if a carrier/drive structure was dropped a small distance onto a horizontal support surface, or permitted to tip over onto such surface, the disk drive was protected from shock damage by these feet that struck the surface and isolated the disk drive from excessive shock loads. While this solution worked well in previous relatively low density supported disk drive arrays, in modern high density arrays (for example, where 10 bays of 1.6" high disk drives are mounted in an industry-standard 19" rack) there is simply no room left for these shock-absorbing feet. AS a consequence, in these high density multi-drive arrays, the computer industry has for the most part abandoned non-operational shock protection of the disk drives in favor of simply warning the user, by appropriately worded labels on the disk drives, against subjecting the disk drives to undue operational shock.
From the foregoing it can be seen that a need exists for an improved disk drive carrier structure that permits the use shock-absorbing feet structures thereon while still permitting multiple drive/carrier structures to be stacked in the required dense mounting arrays thereof. It is to this need that the present invention is directed.